Teams open their clues telling them to make their way to the Great Wall of China! Armed with their $650 on their BMO CashBack Mastercards, teams must first fly to Vancouver and find the local Sinorama Holidays office to pick up their travel package which includes their tickets and a good luck gift.

Once in Beijing, teams must make their way to the Juyong Pass at the Great Wall of China. Here, they will lead a group of visitors on a Sinorama Holidays guided tour of the Great Wall by memorizing facts in English, French and Mandarin.

While all teams arrive at the Great Wall, Korey & Ivana unluckily get stuck with a slow taxi driver. They decide to switch to a different taxi.

Adam & Andrea arrive first, but fail their first attempt. Andrea & Ebonie go next and get the thumbs up after their first. Teams must now make their way to the Canadian Embassy to interrupt a friendly hockey game for their next clue.

Zed & Shabbir and Sam & Paul also get it on their first attempts. Adam & Andrea finally get the thumbs up after their third attempt. Kenneth & Ryan (first attempt) and Karen & Bert (second attempt) are next, leaving Korey & Ivana still in last. They finish after their fourth attempt.

Night falls in Beijing. Zed & Shabbir arrive at the Embassy first and they open the next clue revealing the Detour: In Sync or In Line. Both Detours are located at or near the Ying Tung Natatorium at the Olympic Sports Centre.
In In Sync, teams must execute a synchronized dive and earn a score of 20 or more from a panel of judges. In In Line, teams will dress in colorful costumes to learn and perform a popular line dance.

Zed & Shabbir and Andrea & Ebonie both choose In Sync, as does Sam & Paul. Adam & Andrea decide to get In Line.

Zed & Shabbir get to the Natatorium first, put on their Speedos and get a quick lesson before immediately going to the dive board to give it a try. Shabbir is not sure about it, but Zed says they should just go and get their first attempt out of the way. They end up with a score of 18.

Andrea & Ebonie and Sam & Paul arrive as Zed & Shabbir are on their 3rd attempt. They manage a score of 22 and are given the next clue pointing them to Ren Yi Tang.

Kenneth & Ryan arrive at the pool as Sam & Paul get a 13 on their first attempt. Meanwhile, Adam & Andrea and Karen & Bert get started with learning the dance routine.

Andrea & Ebonie, however, struggle with their practice dives so they decide to switch Detours.

Zed & Shabbir find the next clue which reveals the Road Block: Who wants to play doctor?

For this Road Block, teams must fill a prescription using three herbal ingredients. Using a provided prescription written in Chinese characters, teams must search hundreds of labeled drawers for the correct ingredients to gather the correct amount of each in order to receive their next clue.

Shabbir decides to do the Road Block.

Back at the Detour, Kenneth & Ryan move up a few spots with their score of 20 after their 2nd attempt. Sam & Paul are close behind on their 3rd attempt with a big score of 25.

At the other side of the Detour, Karen & Bert get the thumbs up after their 2nd attempt.

Korey & Ivana arrive at the diving and are very close on their first two attempts. Ivana’s back begins to hurt so they decide to switch over to the dancing. Adam & Andrea are able to get the thumbs up after the third attempt and Andrea & Ebonie pass on their first attempt, all before Korey & Ivana arrive. The dancing isn’t any better for Ivana’s back, but she pushes through it and refuses to give up.

Back at the Road Block, Kenneth and Sam arrive and get started with the task. Karen, Adam and Ebonie are next.

Sam manages to get his prescription done first and he and Paul head to the Pit Stop at the square by the Drum Tower. Shabbir finishes and he and Zed are close behind.

Sam & Paul step on the Mat first and win a trip back to China with a Sinorama tour of Beijing, Xian, Shanghai and a cruise on the Yangtze River. Zed & Shabbir are “the 2nd team to arrive.” Adam & Andrea are 3rd.

Korey & Ivana manage to catch up as Korey gets started with the Road Block. But the other teams’ headstart allows them to finish before him.

Kenneth & Ryan and Karen & Bert are the 4th and 5th teams to arrive.

It’s down to Korey and Ebonie at the Road Block. And it is Korey who gets the thumbs up first. He and Ivana hurry to the Pit Stop where they are the 6th team to arrive.

That means Andrea & Ebonie are last. But Jon says this Leg is “not over.” He hands them the next clue telling teams to take a high-speed train to Shanghai.

Episode Thoughts

Definitely not a bad Leg, especially for TAR Canada. For regular TAR fans who’ve seen one or five TARs around the world, this Leg might have felt very familiar. Maybe even recycled. But for TAR Canada, it was very refreshing. Getting these teams (a solid cast, I must say) out of Canada and in a foreign country just had a different, more exciting and kinetic dynamic overall. Even if some of us have seen these tasks, in one form or another, a few times before.

First, I think we should thank Sinorama Holidays for their sponsorship. It’s quite possible that without them, we probably might not have gotten international Legs. Or at least, these two (one and a half?) Legs in China. Sure, TAR Canada already visited Hong Kong and Macau, both officially part of China. But even so, I’ll take any international Leg.

Starting with the Great Wall task; it was a solid task. It really was just an excuse to feature the iconic structure in some capacity. The task itself was nothing special, in fact, it’s a rehash of several TAR Canada tasks, let alone TAR tasks in general. But it fulfilled its purpose as a great way to feature the Great Wall and our generous sponsor as well.

Visiting the Canadian Embassy was the requisite Canada connection for this international Leg, I guess. But the Route Marker could’ve easily gone to some other nice spot in Beijing.

The Detour was definitely very familiar. Both are almost like standard Beijing tasks for any first time TAR visit. I half expected a foot massage at some point. lol On one hand, I kinda wish they did something else considering how international Legs are at a premium on TAR Canada. But on the other hand, they’re still very much related to China and even Beijing specifically.

The Road Block was definitely the most creative and fresh task this Leg. A little bit of needle in a haystack, a little bit eye for detail. It was a good, tedious task to put at the end of the Leg.

And the Detour and Road Block were fine tasks for an evening Leg in Beijing.

Now as for next Leg (or the second half of this Leg? Jon said this Leg was “not over”, implying one whole Leg, but whatever), Shanghai then Bangkok? All crammed into one Leg when Shanghai and Bangkok could both easily stage their own Legs. (Not only that, but Jon says they’re Racing through Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok all within 24 hours.) TAR Canada’s already actually visiting both cities and apparently staging tasks in both cities, why not make them both separate Legs?

But, it’s really no use to question why TAR #Canada150 does the things it does. Though the comments section of their official Facebook page might be a good clue. lol

Overall, this was a fun, solid Leg in Beijing (not-Canada!) that really put the Racers in a brand new, refreshing and exciting environment. Hopefully we’ll get to see more Legs like this in the future.

My Subjective Team Rankings

The wonders an international Leg can do for one’s perception of teams. lol All teams were pretty solid this Leg and provided some good moments.

Zed & Shabbir had a very good Leg. Zed’s funny Jon impression was spot on. lol Korey & Ivana fell behind thanks to bad taxi luck, but they again showed they can catch up and get right back in the Race.

Andrea & Ebonie‘s decision to switch Detours and the troubles at the Road Block certainly did not help in a very close Leg. But their redemption tour continues and they’ve got another shot. I also very much enjoyed their reaction to going to Beijing.
Same, Andrea & Ebonie. Same. hehe

Adam & Andrea, Karen & Bert and even Leg winners Sam & Paul are all really flying under the radar at this point. Which could easily mean they’re our final 3. Lol

This was probably the least annoying and most tolerable Kenneth & Ryan have been so far. And it was very welcome.